Why does the Apple's store/online-store interface suck so much?
Let's say you're in a hurry, or just want to leverage an online store discount. You catch a ride to the Apple store and order online en route. You get to the store and they say "oh, I have no idea when your order will be ready. It has to be processed, and we want this to be great for you. Just give us some time and when you get that next email, then you can have the product that is literally in your hand right now and you've paid for." I mean, surely there's a reason, what is it? Is the online store division in some internal knife fight with the retail store division?
This seems like a very narrow niche, shoppers who order en route to a store already. If you order a little while ahead and wait for it to be ready, then you're fine. If you don't order ahead and just shop when you get there, no issue.
Most other stores do the same thing BTW. They need time to get your order, process it, have an employee go grab it, confirm the order and set it aside for pickup. In busy stores, this can take some time. If I'm ordering things from REI or Best Buy, for example, it can often take either a few minutes or a few hours for my order to be ready.
Last time I used their online store and went to a physical store for pick-up they did provide a time when my order would be ready. This was only 4 or 5 months ago so it'd be surprising if they'd regressed in that time.
Maybe the problem is that you assumed that they would have everything in inventory and ready to go when you started your trip instead of waiting to see when they said it'd be ready.
I even found the emails. First email was a "we're processing it" and receipt, second one provided a statement on when (day and time) to go to the store to get it.